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President Obama’s handling of Syria has been a master political stroke (“What Obama’s Lost,” Amir Taheri, PostOpinion, Sept. 16).

By threatening to strike Syria, he forced Bashar al-Assad’s most powerful ally, Vladimir Putin, to get involved.

Putin knows there is nothing he could do if US bombs began falling on Damascus, which would severely strain his relationship with Assad and weaken both of them.

Putin didn’t play Obama — Putin got played .

Calvin Hill
Cambria Heights

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Putin’s recent opus is the equivalent of giving our president a wedgie on the Syrian matter. He has co-opted pursuit of just punishment for Assad, who has committed war crimes.

Putin still alleges that the chemicals were not launched by Assad.

This fact alone is cause not to engage him until that matter is admitted on the international stage.

Assad cannot be given a pass on murder, no matter what concessions he is willing to make.

Our claim is easy to comprehend: Over 1 million Americans have died in wars defending freedoms and not suppressing them. Can he say the same?

Phil Serpico
Queens

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It’s really a shame that in dealing with the Syrian situation it was made clear that while Obama may very well be the most eloquent, Putin has all the street smarts.

Making promises you can’t live up to, denying statements made (e.g., red lines) going back and forth about military intervention (even a teeny-weeny raid) and relying on Russia, which has shown its true colors in the United Nations Security Council, is embarrassing to the “last superpower on earth.”

Syria is a dead issue. Now we have to re-establish our prominence to our allies and the world.

We have to get off of the mat and win by a technical knockout, because we’ve lost the opportunity for a real knockout.

Our place on top of the food chain has to also be re-established vis-à-vis Russia.

We can’t let Putin out-hustle us.

Ed Krauss
Scarsdale

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Although I was happy to read Putin’s quote from our Declaration of Independence that all men are created equal, I wish he had completed the line: “that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

It has been a long time since anyone from Russia has made even a passing reference to God.

We are an exceptional nation, and if Putin had studied our history, he would know we were settled by millions of people fleeing the oppression and poverty of their homelands.

Our nation’s freedom gave rise to thousands of important discoveries, inventions and whole industries that lifted millions from the poverty.